OPPOSING A MANDATORY RETIREMENT AGE

WHEREAS, the AFT is opposed to all forms of arbitrary discrimination; and

WHEREAS, national organizations such as The Gray Panthers and the National Council of Senior Citizens are opposed to mandatory fixed age retirement--regarding it as another form of arbitrary discrimination; and

WHEREAS, the principle of individual differences, a cardinal principle in modern education, is cruelly violated by mandatory, fixed age retirement; and

WHEREAS, the ongoing problems of financing Social Security have favored a national policy of encouraging later retirements; and

WHEREAS, there is less drain on state retirement systems under deferred retirement, thereby enhancing the opportunity to gain improved benefits for members of those systems:

RESOLVED, that AFT stands opposed to mandatory fixed age retirement for its members; and

RESOLVED, that bills to implement this position shall be introduced in the state legislatures of states which have a mandatory retirement age, and that attempts to implement a mandatory retirement age in other states shall be opposed by the AFT and its affiliates.